Showers and Other Problems
by Emmie15
Summary: Just a random one-shot that came to me. Disclaimer: Not mine just like to play with them.


**A/N:** Hey guys, not really sure where this came from. It's a bit touch-and-go, but I think it turned out alright, anyway let me know what you think in the reviews! Enjoy and Thanks!

* * *

 **Showers and other problems.**

Hoshi tucked the fly away firmly behind her ear, but almost instantly it flicked back to tickle her ear. Frustrated she let out a long sigh, knuckles coming up to rub her eyes. She blinked several times, waiting for them to refocus on the diagnostic report flashing on her console. Not understanding what was specifically wrong she transferred the information onto a padd and turned towards the captain's chair, her eyes scanning the bridge before settling on the Captain.

"Sir?" He looked up meeting her espresso coloured eyes.

"Yes Hoshi, what can I do for you?" He smiled at her warmly, putting her at ease.

"Well my station's malfunctioning and upon running a diagnostic on it, I don't know how to repair it. Can I take this," she gestured to the padd in front of her torso, "to Engineering so they can figure it out?" With a nod of approval she rose from her station, passed by T'Pol with a friendly smile and stepped into the turbolift. As soon as the door shut she leaned wearily against the wall. It'd been a long week. Between her console malfunction, visiting a planet with several different languages she had to program into the UT and the lack of hot water on E-deck (due to the systems malfunction in several systems) she hadn't had time to stop.

With a reluctant sigh she stepped out of the turbo lift and walked through several corridors until she was greeted with the entry of engineering. She walked through spotting her friend, Jackie Kent, nearby and gladly made her way over.

"Hey Jackie!" She greeted pleasantly, watching Jackie turn from her console to face her.

"Hoshi, what brings you to our neck of the woods?" Jackie winked cheekily. It seemed everyone in engineering had picked up a phrase from their so-called commanding office.

"Any chance you'd be able to fix this for me?" She passed over the padd, "Or even just tell me what's wrong?" Jackie took a couple minutes to glance over the diagnostic report, then hesitantly looked back up.

"I'm sorry Hosh, this is well beyond my expertise. I'd just ask Commander Tucker to help ya' with that one." She advised.

"What d'ya need help with Kent?" Hoshi almost jumped out of her skin, unaware that the subject of their conversation had been walking past at the time. Taking a moment to settle her frazzled nerves, she turned towards where Jackie had already explained the problem to Trip, handing over the padd which now held the chief engineer's attention. With a promise to catch up later, Jackie returned to her station leaving a nervous Hoshi standing next to Trip. "Sorry Hoshi," with the curious look his way, he continued. "For scaring ya' earlier, I swear I didn't mean to." She just nodded and seemed to get lost in her thoughts while Trip continued to read the report.

"Archer to Tucker. Report Trip?" The voice of the captain finally snapping Hoshi back into the present.

"Tucker here sir. I'm gonna have to shut down the communications console for several hours until I can fix it." There was a pause where Hoshi looked worriedly towards Trip, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Alright, keep me updated. Archer out." Moving away from the comm. panel, Trip continued his perusal of the padd. Hoshi hesitated for just a moment before following him.

"Sir?" Trip's eyes flicked up. "Um, when will my station be operational again?"

He smiled at her worried state. "Don't worry Hoshi, I'll have it up and running in no time." She looked less then relieved at the vague answer, but didn't question it. An idea came to Trip. "Would you be able to spare a couple hours to help me fix it?" She seemed to relax at this and nodded enthusiastically.

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Several hours and many swear words later found them sitting in the mess hall digging into their well deserved desserts; Hoshi with jasmine tea and macaroons, Trip unsurprisingly with pecan pie and hot cocoa. Both sat in contented silence, Trip musing in his thoughts and Hoshi leaning her head on her hand. SMACK. Trip jolted and looked up seeing a disoriented Hoshi rubbing her forehead. Evidently she'd dosed off and her hand had slipped, causing her head to hit the table with quite a bit of force.

"Ow." She rubbed her now throbbing forehead gently.

"Hoshi, are you alright?" Trip's concerned tone seemed to bring her back to the present as she met his eyes.

"Yeah, now I just have a killer headache." She made to stand and proceeded to nearly fall out of her seat. At this Trip rounded the table and helped her out of the chair.

"Hosh, do you think you can walk?" He asked, a cautious gaze assessing her body.

"Well of course." Defiantly she stood and walked towards the door, only her legs didn't seem to want to work. Trip caught her before she hit the ground and gave her a pointed look before cracking a smile.

"Alrighty, let's get you to sickbay." With Trip's arm firmly around her waist, Hoshi allowed him to guide her exhausted body to sickbay. She was silently thankful for the late hour, not passing any curious eyes on their way.

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

"Phlox? Doctor Phlox?" Trip tried to locate the Doctor while guiding Hoshi towards the nearest biobed. Phlox appeared from where he kept his animals.

"Commander, Ensign, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked, his eyes already scanning Hoshi's swaying form.

"I think Hoshi's given herself a concussion." His eyes moving from Phlox to Hoshi, arms instinctively reaching out to steady her.

Phlox grabbed a tricorder and began scanning Hoshi while Trip remained holding her upright. With a slight frown marring his face Phlox closed the tricorder and programmed a hypospray before injecting Hoshi with it.

"So doc, what's the prognosis?" Trip tried to keep the jovial tune to his voice but it was laced with concern.

"Well Commander, she does indeed have a concussion, but she also has severely low melatonin levels." With a confused look from Trip, Phlox explained. "It means she isn't getting enough sleep and her body has been trying to compensate." Trips eyes gazed over the form of his friend, now noticing the bags under her eyes and slightly paler skin. He cursed himself for not picking up on it sooner.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" He barely glanced away from her, but if Phlox noticed he didn't comment.

"Not for the moment, I've given her a sedative that will keep her unconscious for at least the next 8-10 hours. If you'd like I can contact you when she wakes up, but until then I'd recommend you get some rest as well Commander." Seeing he wasn't really being given a choice he left sickbay, and briefly considered going back to engineering, but a yawn swayed him in favour of his quarters.

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Trip rang the chime and patiently awaited the occupant to open their door. Hoshi appeared on the other side of the open door and gestured for him to enter.

"So ensign, what seems to be the problem?" He kept his eyes trained on her as she made her way towards the bathroom.

"Well, my shower head seems to be leaking." Following her into the bathroom and placing his toolkit on the vanity he turned.

"Right," he stepped into the shower recess, "Let's see what the problem is." He looked up at the steadily dripping tap, turning the cold water off it appeared to stop. "Hosh, I don't..." His sentence trailed off as he turned back towards her, now only clad in a black lacy one-piece. She came up to him, never breaking eye contact and began to unzip his jumpsuit. She peeled it off his shoulders and removed the blue vest underneath, leaving him in only his boxes.

She reached around him, turning on the hot water, spraying his back with it. She looked up to him, placing her hands either side of his face, and pulled him down to meet her lips. Quickly regaining mobility of his body, he flipped them, gently pinning her between himself and the wall. He pulled away and began sucking his way down her neck, her moans encouraging him, then continuing up towards her ear. A strange noise halted his progress and he pulled away, listening for the source. Looking back to Hoshi he found she'd disappeared. He blinked again and found himself staring at the ceiling in his quarters. Bringing one arm up to cover his eyes, the other moved to the panel next to his bed, turning the alarm off.

Groaning he rolled over trying to revel in the aftermath of the dream. Suddenly he sat up on his elbows. Why was he dreaming about Hoshi in such a compromising position? A voice in the back of his head told him the obvious, _'You like to her.'_ Another voice joined in, _'But you can't like her, she's an ensign remember.'_ Choosing to ignore both voices, Trip removed himself from the bedding and headed straight for the bathroom, running an ice cold shower.

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Phlox looked up from feeding his many creatures to see a disgruntled Trip enter his sickbay.

"Ah, good morning Commander. Here to check in on Hoshi, hm?" He smiled kindly, gesturing to a set of closed curtains. "She hasn't woken up yet but you're more than welcome to wait until she does." With a mutter of thanks, Trip moved behind the curtain and situated himself in the chair next to her bed. Phlox simply shook his head, always fascinated by humans need to be in close proximity to those they care about.

Trip shuffled the chair closer to the bed, reaching over and grabbing one of her hand in both of his. He sighed contented and gently slipped into a light sleep.

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Hoshi took a deep breath, slowly opening her eyes. Blinking several times they finally focused on the white ceiling. Slightly confused she listened carefully noticing the subtle beeping of machinery and remembered she was in sick bay. Suddenly becoming aware of someone breathing close by, she looked to the side and was pleasantly surprised to see Trip sitting there, his head resting on the bed, apparently sleeping. She gently sat up belatedly realizing that he had effectively trapped her hand within his and cringed as he stirred and sat up, looking at her. She smiled sheepishly at him as he let go of her hand.

"Sorry Hosh... don't know what I was doing. Anyway... how are you feeling?" She smiled wider at his flustered state.

"I feel much better than yesterday, but still a bit light-headed." At this Phlox came around the curtain and studied Hoshi with his eyes.

"Good to see you up and about Ensign." He began to run tests while an awkward silence filled the small area. "Ah, good." Phlox placed the tricorder to the side and addressed Hoshi. "My scans indicate that the majority of your concussion has subsided, but I'd like you to take it easy today, no doing anything too strenuous." At this Phlox turned to Trip. "I take it I can trust you to ensure she doesn't overwork herself today Commander?" With an affirmative nod from Trip, Phlox returned his gaze to Hoshi. "Well Ensign, You are clear to go, but I want you back here if anything, and I mean anything changes." And at that he turned and left the pair staring after him. After several seconds had passed, Hoshi pulled the bedding back at swung her legs over to the side. Gracefully sliding off the bed she now stood in front of a dazed Trip. Giggling slightly, he focused his attention back on her.

"Somethin' funny Ensign?" He put joking emphasis on her rank, rising to stand as well.

"No nothing, sir." She replied almost as sarcastically. He moved around her to open the curtain. As she took a step towards him, her leg buckled and would've brought her crashing to the ground if Trip's arms hadn't once again caught her. "Thanks." She grimaced at him, allowing his arm to attach itself firmly to her waist, placing her arm around his broad shoulders.

"Where to milady?" He joked, bringing a smile to her face.

"My quarters if you don't mind, I would love a hot shower." He laughed.

"Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but..." She swatted him, but couldn't stop the giggle from bubbling out of her chest. Remembering the hot water situation she groaned. "What?" He looked at her suddenly concerned, unaware that she was in mental pain, not physical pain.

"My hot water isn't working." She grumbled as he sagged relieved she wasn't in pain.

"I thought that was fixed weeks ago. I'll get Jensen onto it when I get back to Engineering. But for now, you can use my hot water."

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

She argued with herself that she'd only agreed to this at the lure of a hot shower. They weren't even halfway to his quarters and Hoshi was already beginning to tire again. Trip stopped them, and Hoshi looked up to him confused.

"Right, this is just pointless." Barely a second later she found herself cradled in his arms, hers firmly around his neck. He was already several paces from where they'd been when the shock finally wore off.

"Trip! Put me down right now!" He just laughed, ignoring the threatening tone and continuing his strides towards his quarters. "Trip!" This just caused further laughter, vibrating his chest against her body. When she realized he wasn't going to put her down anytime soon, she sat there, fuming in silence.

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

The hot water cascaded over her sore and tired muscles. She nearly sagged from relief. When they did finally reach Trip's quarters, she'd given him an earful, to which he had simply laughed, chucked her a towel and one of his shirts and told her to get _'her cute tooshie in the shower now!'_ She spent the next ten minutes deconstructing Trip's recent behaviour and settled on her next course of action. After drying off and putting his shirt on, with only her underwear underneath, she exited the bathroom. She found him lying casually on his bunk, reading a padd intently.

She draped the towel over the chair, having gained his attention when the bathroom door had opened. She slowly made her way across the small space and sat on the bed next to his prone form. He leaned over, placing the padd on the nightstand and hoisting himself onto his elbows.

"Feel more human now?" He asked her, eyes unnaturally dark, a small smile gracing his lips.

"Yes, but I can think of other ways to feel human." She glanced around the room casually, feeling his eyes on her.

"Really, like what?" His tone teasing, she turned to meet his gaze. Gathering up all her courage, she closed the distance between them, placing her lips to his. His hand came up to her hair, the other on her waist. Both her hands came up to cup his face, allowing him to pull her across his body. The sudden shift in gravity caused her to squeak into their joined lips, his now smiling. They broke apart panting slightly and staring intently into the others eyes.

"God, you're so beautiful." This sent Hoshi over the edge. She attacked Trip with kisses, removing the cotton shirt he'd had on and making quick work of his pants. He ran his hands down her sides, cupping her bottom and squeezing it. When she moaned in delight, he left one hand there, the other travelling back up her side resting just below her breast. He pulled away suddenly. "Are you sure about this? Cause this isn't going to be a one-time thing." He stared at her intensely.

"Oh god you're such an idiot. I've been in love with you for over a year and you haven't even noticed. Of course I'm sure, there's nothing else I want more!"

He grinned at her enthusiasm. "Oh I noticed darlin', just wanted to make sure it wasn't a passing crush." At this he fully flipped them, removing her shirt and trailing kisses down the length of her torso.

 **\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

Barely an hour later, they lay tangled together talking. "You wouldn't believe this bizarre dream I had last night." He winked at her, piquing her curiosity.

"What was it?" She asked uncertainly.

"Well, I prefer to act things out, seems to make them more realistic." He winked pulling her towards the bathroom.


End file.
